Background

As part of their broader effort to help communities reduce their wildfire risk, the nonprofit Headwaters Economics has created a database of cost estimates for retrofitting homes to be more wildfire-resistant. Headwaters Economics partnered with Element 84 to help them make this data accessible to the public in the most impactful way.

I led a discovery phase to identify user needs and create a value proposition. Working iteratively, and testing frequently, I translated discovery insights into wireframes and visual designs. I'm currently contributing to frontend development.

The application is expected to launch in December 2024.

Discovery

1. Let a kickoff workshop with stakeholders to align on project goals and challenges. Activities included a competitive analysis of similar pulblic-facing application (in sectors like home electrification), and journey mapping to identify potential use cases for the data.
2. Conducted interviews with ten potential users representing homeowners, construction industry professionals, and fire/mitigation professionals.
3. Documented participants' needs with regards to wildfire-resistant home improvement and identified opportunities where Headwaters Economics data was uniquely positioned to address these needs.
4. Analysis revealed that our data was most useful for helping homeowners identify their home's vulnerabiities to wildfire, and to identify risk reduction solutions for their situation and budget.
   Additionally, fire professionals might use the dat to supplement site visists with homeowners, or to creat budgets for risk mitigation grant applications.

Ideation & Design

Working closely with potential users, I designed and tested multiple iterations of prototypes for the two most promising concepts. I refined wireframes into visual designs and created an accessible, interactive data visualization to assist homeowners in using the application.

The application is expected to launch in December 2024.